. >> reporter: jack black grew up in california where his parents were both scientists, aerospace engineers to be exact. were you good at math and science? >> not so much. i don't know what happened because both my parents were... my parents-es were real good at math learning. but i didn't inherit that. >> reporter: his music gene was accompanied by a video game gene. in fact that's what led to his first paying gig. a tv commercial for the game pit ball harry. >> just last night i was lost in jungle with pit ball harry. >> reporter: do you remember your line? >> just last night i was lost in the jungle with pit ball harry. >> reporter: wow. you do remember it. >> you always remember your first gig. >> reporter: he got noticed early on in the film bob roberts. but it didn't lead to anything big. so once again, he turned to music. and he started writing songs with his friend kyle gas for their band called tenacious. >> the first one that we wrote was about a painful break-up i had with a girl in college. >> reporter: it wasn't funny. no. i think it went like this. ♪ at one time i could advi